Feting a Jazz Legacy

Jazz at Lincoln Center honors Dave Brubeck

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A view of the Dave Brubeck exhibit.
Andrew Lamberson for The Wall Street Journal

By

Will Friedwald

Updated April 7, 2014 5:08 p.m. ET

The composer and pianist Dave Brubeck, who died in 2012 at age 91, left such a vast legacy that when Jazz at Lincoln Center began to plan a celebration of his music 18 months ago, they found that a single concert couldn't do him justice.

Brubeck is known for introducing new rhythms and time signatures to the jazz world, but also for bringing the genre out of nightclubs and into concert halls and college campuses. "Wynton [ Marsalis, the center's artistic director] told my dad that he loved his music so much that he felt he had to go to special lengths to honor him," Brubeck's son Chris said.

The centerpiece of the festival, which starts Monday and runs to Sunday, is "The Life & Music of Dave Brubeck," a concert by Mr. Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra that will feature reinterpretations of Brubeck classics like "Take Five" and "In Your Own Sweet Way."

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Mr. Brubeck in 2010.
Associated Press

"The Real Ambassadors," in the center's Appel Room, is a theatrical piece by Brubeck and his wife Iola, who died last month, and was conceived with Louis Armstrong in mind.

"My parents were overjoyed when Louis consented to do it," on a 1961 recording and a year later at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Chris Brubeck said. "It enabled him to express deeper and darker thoughts than most of what he was singing at the time."

Its performers on Friday will include Roberta Gambarini—"she had it memorized even as she was learning how to speak English," Jason Olaine, Jazz at Lincoln Center's director of programming, said—and Yolande Bavan, one of the singers at the 1962 performance, who will serve as the narrator.

A succession of Brubeck-centric bands will play Dizzy's Club Coca Cola this week, including groups led by his sons Chris (trombone, bass), Dan (drums) and Darius (piano), as well as bands from the Brubeck Institute in Stockton, Calif. Finally, an exhibition, "Dave Brubeck: Jazz Ambassador," features posters, photos, album covers and other visual material related to the musician's life and work.

The festival may be the last project Dave Brubeck had a hand in. Two months before his death, he met with Mr. Marsalis, Mr. Olaine and his sons, Mr. Olaine said.

"Dave didn't say a lot, but you knew he was there."

Corrections & Amplifications An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the Brubeck Institute was located in Fresno, Calif.

Thanks for a well written and timely article about this event. These articles are what I enjoy most about my subscription to the journal. Does anyone know which print edition contained this piece? I did not see it in my recent print journals. I have been looking forward to this event since getting my tickets moths ago. Following up on Mr Michaud's comment, the early recording, "Jazz at The College of the Pacific" is well-worth owning and itself is a testament to something else pioneered by The Quartet-the college date concert format.

Dear Mr. Friedwald:Please note for your readers that the Brubeck Institute is at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., not Fresno. Dave and Iola Brubeck graduated from the university when it was known as College of the Pacific. We are so very fortunate that in 2000 they formed the Brubeck Institute at their alma mater to promote jazz and to continue the life’s work of Dave and Iola Brubeck in education, community engagement, and serving as a catalyst for social change. That is done now through five programs – the Brubeck Collection, Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet, Summer Jazz Colony, Community Outreach, and the Brubeck Fesitval. The JALC part of the festival followed more than three days of jazz in Stockton with Al Jarreau, Eddie Palmieri, Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright and Terri Lyne Carrington among others performing. Visit BrubeckInstitute.org for more information on the Brubeck Institute at University of the Pacific in Stockton.Mr. Friedlwald, please correct the Brubeck Institute’s location.

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